Communities around Rocky Flats unite against oil and gas drilling near former nuclear weapons plant

BROOMFIELD — Leaders from nearly a dozen cities and counties surrounding Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge spoke with one voice Monday, formalizing their opposition to future oil and gas drilling on or under the land where plutonium triggers for the nation’s nuclear arsenal were manufactured for decades.

The resolution, passed unanimously by the Rocky Flats Stewardship Council with Jefferson County abstaining, comes seven months after residents in nearby Superior rose up in fierce opposition to a plan by an energy company to drill up to 31 wells underneath the refuge. The company, Highlands Natural Resources Corp., backed off its plan following the public outcry.

But the company’s proposal late last year, and the ensuing fight against it, spawned an effort by Superior to get the stewardship council — tasked with providing ongoing oversight of the post-closure management of Rocky Flats — to take a hard stand on mineral extraction near the site of a former industrial facility long criticized for the environmental damage it wrought on the land and the potential hazards residual contaminants, like deadly plutonium, still pose today.

Representatives from Boulder, Arvada, Golden, Broomfield, Superior, Thornton, Northglenn and Westminster, as well as Jefferson and Boulder counties, serve on the council. They met Monday at Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport in Broomfield.

Read more: https://www.denverpost.com/2019/06/03/rocky-flats-oil-gas-resolution/